“From His abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. (John 1:16 NLT)
If you’ve been around people of God very long you’ve no doubt heard them use the word “grace” numerous times. Strong’s Concordance translates “grace” as: “that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness.” A common definition among believers is: “a free, undeserved, unmerited favor.” How ever you define it, it’s a common understanding that grace is a gift from God.
The Scriptures are filled with references to grace, perhaps one of the most used verses is Ephesians 2:8 where Paul writes: “God saved you by His grace when you believed.” What does that mean? It means you don’t owe any part or piece of your salvation to yourself – it was and is all God! We’re not saved by virtue of our own goodness; we’re saved because God is merciful and full of grace.
Do we ever outgrow or move beyond our need of God’s grace? Only when we draw our last breath. As long as we live on this planet we’ll never graduate from our need of the Lord’s grace, mercy, and love. Paul David Tripp wrote: “It’s wonderful that God’s grace never grows weary or runs out because, this side of eternity, no one is a grace graduate.”
What does that mean? It essentially means that we are ever dependent upon God’s grace, not only to save us, but to sustain us. What does that mean? Put a baseball or something with some weight that isn’t breakable in the palm of your hand. Then as fast as you can pull your hand away from what you’re holding. What will happen every time? It drops straight to the ground.
That’s what God’s sustaining power is doing for you. Hebrews 1:3 says in reference to Jesus: “The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and He sustains everything by the mighty power of His command. When He had cleansed us from our sins, He sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.”
Think about that for a minute. “Sustains” means He is currently bearing or upholding everything. Nothing or no one is beyond the reach of the grace of God. If you’re alive, you may not have put your faith in God, you may not even believe He exists, but He believes in you and He’s sustaining your life on this planet every second. Without Him you, nor anyone else alive today, would last one second.
But that’s not all His grace supplies. Notice the verse also says “cleansed us from our sins…” Why is that significant. Let me ask you a rhetorical question: “will you ever sin again?” If you’re like me, I don’t want to ever sin again, but the truth is, I, and you, will wrestle with sin in some form or fashion until our last breath. Why does that matter?
Jesus’ blood has already paid for that sin. So, does that mean we should just sin up a storm? Don’t mock the mercy of God. Paul writes in Romans 6:1: “Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of His wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?” “To live in it” means to continue to sin as a habit.
God has given us the tools we need to be healed and delivered of habitual sin, but that doesn’t exempt us of other ways we sin against our Savior and each other. Sin will be our constant companion as long as we live, and that’s exactly the reason we will never out grow our need for God’s grace.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 